The Lucky Guild
by TheSafeJug
Summary: The most idiotic players in SAO form a guild and attempt to survive. With a group of misfits, can they win Sword Art Online?
1. Virtual Thingy

**Welcome to the first chapter of my SAO fanfic! Not sure what to say... chapters will be short but I'll update often. I don't own anything!**

* * *

"So, are you going to play that virtual thingy?" A horribly annoying voice chirped from beside me.

"Hello to you, too." I sighed. "And it's not a virtual _thingy_, it's Sword Art Online. Everyone online is talking about it."

"I do not care! Bye!" My wonderful sister Miku pranced out of my room.

Sometimes I wonder if we're related.

It was almost time for me to jump into the virtual world of SAO, which I had been anticipating for weeks. But there was one minor issue about going into the game which I wasn't so pleased about.

See, I had promised someone on an online forum I'd play with them. We know what our names in-game will be, and we've decided to meet up at the first town. There's a catch: this someone just so happens to think I'm a girl.

It was a misunderstanding on the forum. When I first met her, she thought my username meant I was a chick, and I played along for whatever reason. It's been six months since I've known her on the forum, and we talk on there a lot. I've created a huge web of lies to fake her out into really believing I'm female. But now, I'm stuck creating a female avatar on SAO.

My alarm clock rang. This meant it was time to dive into the game. It was my first time ever using the NerveGear, and I was hyped for the experience, but not having to meet up with Ayumi.

Oh yeah, her name was Ayumi, by the way.

Anyway, it was finally time. I shut my door and booted up the NerveGear, ready to FullDive.

"Link start!"


	2. Killing Boars with Ayumi

Here I was, standing in the Town of Beginnings. Nothing was different at all.

Oh yeah, except for the fact that my avatar was a girl.

This technology was amazing. I ignored my avatar for a couple seconds to gaze at the scenery. It was like I was actually inside a town. Then I remembered my avatar again.

I created my avatar the way I described myself to look on the forum: long, straight brown hair, medium height, and-

"Hari!" A random, feminine voice yelled. There were a lot of people here, and I couldn't tell if maybe someone else had picked the same name as my avatar - which was a lazy female version of my own name - or if Ayumi had seen me.

I whipped around to see a tall girl with short blonde hair.

Ayumi.

"Heh, hey..." I nervously said. Man, my voice was high. This would take some getting used to.

"Hi, Hari!" Ayumi giggled. "I'm finally... well, kind of meeting you!"

"Yeah..." I replied. Okay, a lot of getting used to. I hated this voice.

"So, wanna go shop for stuff?" Ayumi asked.

"Eh... shouldn't we kill boars or something? It'd be much more productive." I argued. I almost punched myself in the throat.

"You're right! You're an awesome friend, Hari! Let's go kill some boars!" Ayumi ran like a lunatic down the streets of the town, bumping into people, saying a long apology and then continuing her run.

I sighed. She seemed kind of annoying in real life... uh, or SAO. It was really hard to remember this was a video game.

* * *

We arrived at a field where there were loads of boars. Ayumi started shaking.

"It's a video game." I reminded her.

"Right, right... those boars look scary..."

"I wonder how you'll react when you see bosses."

"Don't remind me about those scary monsters... I just wanna have fun here!" Ayumi whined.

"Uh... I guess I'll shop with you, or whatever... if you fight boars for a few minutes." I reassured her.

"YES!" Ayumi automatically snapped out of her funk and victoriously pumped her arm. "Let's do this!"

She ran into a boar and fell down, losing a ton of HP.

I sighed.

"You have to be smarter than that; try to plan out your attacks." I tried to act all serious, but this voice... I think I've said enough about it, but it was pretty much on my mind the entire time.

"Okay, bossy." Ayumi crossed her arms, walking back over to me. "You try it."

"Fine with me." I shrugged. I'd read enough about this game to fight a simple boar like this.

I slowly took out my dagger and grasped it in my palm. The boar went for me, but I sidestepped it and slammed my dagger into its skull. Ayumi cheered.

It wasn't quite over yet, as the boar had a bit of HP left. I stood there nonchalantly as it ran towards me, but when it arrived, I sliced its body in half, delivering the final blow.

"Holy crap!" Ayumi rushed over to me and patted me on the back. "You are amazing, girl!"

Thanks for reminding me, Ayumi. I'd been so immersed in the battle that I almost forgot, but leave it up to you to remind me.

* * *

We fought a lot of boars, and the sun was setting. Ayumi was actually getting the hang of it, slashing boars like they were butter. We were getting a lot of experience, and we even leveled up.

"Well, it's almost night. I wouldn't want to keep fighting boars 24/7. It's time for some nighttime shopping!" Ayumi sheathed her sword.

Tsk, tsk. I forgot.

"Oh, fine. I said I would." I painfully agreed.

Then I looked at the time, and a plan formulated in my head.

"Ah, shoot. Dinner's ready at home." I tried to sound sad, but inside I was screaming "YES!" over and over. Escape from Ayumi, who I much preferred in a chat window online.

It was a lie, by the way. Dinner was ready whenever I wanted. It was in the fridge, ready to be microwaved.

"I'll start shopping, but come back later, okay?" Ayumi smiled at me, and it was a really nice smile. For the first time today, I wasn't annoyed at her.

"Okay." I answered, giving a grin back. I pressed my thumb and index finger together and swiped them down; this is the way to open your menu in-game. I scrolled down with my finger to the log out button.

Wait.

It wasn't there.

"H-Hey, Ayumi, you know where the log out button is? I thought I knew." I nervously asked, anxious to eat my food and keep a watch over my sister before she destroyed my house. My mom wasn't even home, nor my dad, and my sister didn't care. They depended on me to babysit her, because when I turned fifteen my parents treated me like a full-on independent adult. They're out for a movie or something.

"Yes, it's... huh?" Ayumi was staring at her menu. "It's not there..."

"Oh, man... I never heard about an emergency logout. This is a serious bug." I grimly said.

"I need to go home!" Ayumi whimpered. "I can't be stuck here!"

"You probably won't. They'll fix it." I shook my head. "But it is an odd bug. If they knew about this bug, which they probably would, they could turn off the server and log everyone out automatically."

"What d-does that mean?" Ayumi was panicking. I was more worried that before they fixed the bug, I'd wake up and my sister will have destroyed the entire house and done something weird with my body while I was in the game.

"I don't know... let's just wait." I reassured Ayumi, who looked like she was going to faint.

Just then, I was swallowed by light.


	3. Warning: System Announcement

And in seconds, I was right back where I first started the game. The central plaza of the Town of Beginnings.

"Huh?" Ayumi looked around. There were hundreds of people here. Thousands. Maybe even... ten thousand.

"I think everyone in the game has been teleported to this place." I thought aloud.

Ayumi didn't have time to reply, because after the shock that everyone had randomly teleported to the central plaza, cries of panic rang out. I heard many people yelling if they could log out yet, and as nothing seemed to be happening, the cries started to become irritated yelling, asking if this was all a joke.

Then someone yelled over everyone else to look up.

About one hundred meters above our heads, the sky was checkered in red. The pattern read: "Warning: System Announcement"

"Oh, goody! They'll tell us what's up!" Ayumi took a deep breath and smiled. I calmed down a little, too. I knew a GM was about to say something.

Then, I saw blood.

Blood came pouring out of the center of the pattern. Ayumi started to panic again. I was just curious as to what was going on.

The blood, though, was starting to form a shape, oddly. Ayumi nudged me and asked what was going on, and I just shrugged. Maybe it was an opening ceremony.

The blood took the shape of a twenty meter tall figure. It had a hooded robe draped around it.

"So that's a GM...? But where's the face?"

Ayumi was right; there was no face. Just darkness where the face of a human would regularly be.

After some alarmed whispers amongst the crowd, the figure's arms rose up and spread out to the thousands of players.

"Players, I welcome you all to my world." The figure boomed. It was a male voice, deep but calm.

Ayumi was in shock momentarily, but then asked me something.

"_My world_? It is a GM who can, like, change stuff in the game... but why would this GM point that out?"

Ayumi was right.

"My name is Kayaba Akihiko. Right now, I am the only person who can control this world." The figure boomed again.

Kayaba...

Akihiko?

The creator of Sword Art Online.

"It's... him?" Ayumi asked, in disbelief.

Kayaba Akihiko was a role model of mine. I'd always wanted to create games, and he had created _this _game, which was truly amazing. I dreamed of having my own VRMMORPG. Mine would be something about pirates. Not sure why, but I like pirates. Maybe some kind of pirate battle game?

I snapped out of my thoughts and comprehended what the creator of SAO just told the ten thousand players standing before him. Why is he the only person controlling the world?

And why hasn't he addressed the Log Out issue?

"I think that most of you have discovered the fact that the Log Out button has disappeared from the main menu. This is not a bug; it is all part of Sword Art Online's system." Kayaba Akihiko explained to us.

Oh. There he goes.

"Part of... the system?" Ayumi gulped. "What?!"

This alarmed me as well, but I kept quiet to listen to what else the creator of this game had to say. I really didn't understand this comment about it being all part of the system...

It was a bug, right?

Why would he make it so you couldn't log out?

"Until you get to the top of this castle, you cannot log out of your own free will." Kayaba Akihiko informed the crowd.

Castle?

I didn't understand any of Kayaba's sentence.

"...also, the disruption or dismantling of the Nerve Gear from the outside is strictly forbidden. If these things are attempted..." He added.

I waited. It was a horrible moment of silence.

"the signal sensors in your Nerve Gear will emit a strong electromagnetic pulse, destroying your brain and stopping all of your basic functions."

Ayumi and I stared at each other.

We were silent for a moment.

"I-Impossible, right? It's a video game... he can't do that!" Ayumi argued, in disbelief.

I knew it was probably possible, knowing what the NerveGear could do.

But could it really _kill _us?

In real life?

I was stunned; I couldn't agree with Ayumi because I had a feeling that Kayaba Akihiko was not lying. Of course, I wanted it to not be true. I tried to agree with Ayumi... but I couldn't.

If someone takes off the NerveGear, I'm dead.

So is Ayumi.

And so are the ten thousand players in SAO.

"To be a little more specific, disconnection from an outside source of electricity for ten minutes, being cut off from the system for more than two hours, or any attempt to: unlock, dismantle, or destroy the Nerve Gear. If any of these conditions are met, the brain destruction sequence will start. These conditions have been made known to the government and the public through mass-media in the outside world. On that note, there have been several cases where the relatives or friends have ignored the warnings and tried to forcefully remove the Nerve Gear. The result..."

I waited for the hooded GM to finish, in silence.

"...regretfully 213 players have already exited this game, and the real world, forever."

Screams automatically rang out through the crowd.

This couldn't be happening. 213? Impossible...

If this guy is right...

The only good thing to come of this is that, since the media is probably buzzing about these 213 deaths, my parents wouldn't dare to remove my NerveGear.

I hoped.

"Players, there is no need to worry about the bodies you left on the other side. As of this moment, all TV, radio, and Internet media are repeatedly reporting this situation; including the fact that there have been numerous deaths. The danger of having your Nerve Gear taken off has already all but disappeared. In a moment, using the two hours I have provided, all of you will be transported to hospitals or similar institutes and be given the best treatment. So you can relax... and concentrate on beating the game."

I was barely listening in my anger.

Why would he do this!?

"But I ask of you all to understand that Sword Art Online is no longer a simple game. It is a second reality... From now on, any form of revival in the game will no longer work. The moment your HP reaches 0, your avatar will be gone forever. And at the same time..." The creator the game started.

I knew what he was going to say.

"...your brain will be destroyed by the Nerve Gear."

No...

He'd gone too far.

Taking off the NerveGear and dying as a result is awful.

But now, if you died in-game?

People would die. Tons of people. There are countless noobs playing the game for the first time... like me.

Even if I know everything about SAO from online articles, I will die. Everyone dies in games like these... you die, you learn from your mistake, and keep going.

He couldn't stop that from happening.

But now, if you die, you're out.

Ayumi screamed.

"Players, there is only one way to be freed from this game. As I have said before, you must get to the top of Aincrad, the one hundredth floor, and defeat the final boss that resides there. All players still alive at that time will be immediately logged out of the game. I give you all my word."

The castle, Aincrad.

We had to beat the game?

Beat an MMORPG?

I almost laughed, but I knew this was all real now.

It apparently took two months for the beta testers to get to the sixth floor.

This was impossible...

Cries rang out in the crowd again, but Kayaba Akihiko had more to say. I knew it. I turned to face the enormous figure who created this death game.

"Then I will show you evidence that this is the only reality. In your inventories, there will be a gift from me. Please confirm this."

I did as he said and checked my inventory.

Hmm.

A Hand Mirror?

What's that?

I grabbed it and stared into it. Nothing even happened. I just saw my female avatar staring back at me.

Ayumi was doing the same.

Then, in a second or two, white light enveloped the whole crowd. I was blinded for a second, but then everything was back to normal.

Except that where Ayumi was standing, a bearded man in women's clothing stood. He was pretty short, and had straight brown hair.

"Who... are you?" I asked, but realized something.

My voice.

It wasn't so high-pitched anymore.

"And... who are you?" The man asked back.

It hit me.

I looked into the mirror again.

It was my face.

But not my female avatar's face.

My very own face. The one I owned in real life.

The Hand Mirror...

"Wait... you're a guy!" I accused Ayumi.

"Well... so are you!" She... He... pointed at me.

"True... so we both lied about our genders?" I sighed.

"I guess so. I can't believe this! I cared about your life, just to find out you're a guy!" Ayumi crossed his arms.

"Well, you too..." I mumbled back.

Ayumi didn't reply. Maybe it was because we both looked like complete idiots in women's clothing as we now were our real selves.

I looked around. The whole crowd had changed; mainly the fact that there were much less women. It occurred to me that I wasn't the only one posing as a girl. Everyone looked completely different, and a lot of men were wearing skirts and dresses.

"How did he do this?!" Ayumi huffed.

"I'm not sure. Maybe that scan they did when you get your NerveGear." I shrugged.

"You're right..." Ayumi agreed. She still seemed mad at me, which didn't make any sense, as we both were lying about our identities.

"You will all most probably be wondering, 'Why.' Why am I —the creator of both the Nerve Gear and SAO, Kayaba Akihiko— doing something like this? Is this a sort of terrorist attack? Is he doing this to ransom us?" The booming voice of the GM spoke again, after a long silence.

He was going to explain himself.

"These are not the reasons why I am doing this. Not only that, but for me, there is no longer a reason or a purpose in doing this. The reason is because... this situation itself was my purpose in doing this. To create and watch this world is the only reason I have created the Nerve Gear and SAO. And now, everything has been realized." Kayaba Akihiko answered himself.

That was the worst explanation I could have hoped for.

I looked at Ayumi... well, I wasn't sure what Ayumi's actual name was, but I'm just going to call him Ayumi for now. He was still crossing his arms and facing the opposite direction as I was.

"...Now, I have finished the official tutorial for Sword Art Online. Players—I wish you luck." Kayaba Akihiko said, with a strange, small echo.

Then, to my shock, the huge robed figure started melting into the pattern in the sky. Quickly, it was gone.

The entire crowd rang out with panic.


	4. The Pirates

**So here's Chapter 4! I'd like to thank those of you who have reviewed; feedback really motivates me to keep writing! **

**Additionally, I will be using original monsters in this story. This means the monsters I mention will not have appeared in the LN/Anime. **

**Enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

"We're off to the dungeon!" Arata bellowed as the Pirates marched towards the dungeon on the fifth floor.

"We are so gonna die..." I mumbled, and thankfully, none of the members of the guild heard my snarky remark. But honestly, I thought we were going to die.

The Pirates was a guild that I founded. I needed a group of players to help me along my quest in the death game, because I knew deep down that I would die without them.

But maybe I was better off without this group.

The only members I could recruit after the months I'd been trapped in the death game were Arata, an annoying teenager who tried way too hard to be funny, Fumio, a younger kid who's extremely shy, and Kazuhiro, a teenager obsessed with saving the world. However, they are all incredibly weak.

And here the Pirates went, walking to a deadly dungeon full of traps and monsters.

We were screwed.

"So what's our plan for the boss, Haru?" Kazuhiro questioned me.

"Ehh..." I didn't know what the plan was. I hadn't even thought about it.

"Kill it!" Arata suggested.

"I-I think h-he means l-like a b-battle strategy..." Fumio gulped at the horrors of speaking to the members of the guild, even though we'd been together for months. In fact, he was the first guild member I hired.

"Fumio, shut up and don't interrupt the guild leader!" Arata commanded. Fumio looked like he was about to faint from that comment.

Silence.

"Nah, I'm kiddin', Fummy." Arata patted Fumio on the back.

"We just need to... well, kill it. It's hard to come up with a good strategy when we don't even know what the boss is yet." I settled on that as my answer.

"I was right! Booyah!" Arata jumped for joy, tripping on a rock.

The group snickered under their breaths.

"I meant to do that!" Arata started jogging.

* * *

"Here we are." Kazuhiro A.K.A Captain Obvious announced as we stepped into the dungeon.

"Are you guys ready for this?" I asked, even though I knew we weren't.

"Yeah!" Arata answered.

"You bet." Kazuhiro grinned at me.

"N-Not really." Fumio, the only honest one here, replied.

"Well, I guess the majority of us are prepared. What monsters are here?" I asked, even though I knew none of the Pirates would be able to answer my question.

"Uhh..." All three of the Pirates said, in unison.

"Guys!" Fumio called out, stepping back behind me, using the entire guild as his personal human shield.

"It's..."

"A wolf?!" The Pirates exclaimed.

"But those are low-level monsters... why are they here?" Kazuhiro drew his sword, a long, shiny bronze one.

"This isn't a normal wolf..." I gulped. This wolf looked mad. It had dark red fur, and it's eyes were glowing red as well. And this highly dangerous wolf was charging at my pathetic guild.

"YAAAA!" Kazuhiro charged right into it, slicing its leg. It barely took any damage, grinding its teeth against Kazuhiro's foot. He rolled backwards, falling on his face.

"Oh, crap." Arata muttered, taking out his crystal dagger. It was custom-made, and very powerful. If only he was strong enough to use it properly.

"Kazuhiro! Use a potion to heal yourself! The rest of the Pirates... charge him!" I ordered, pulling out my steel sword. Fumio pulled out an iron dagger with a pretty sharp looking blade. We all ran for the wolf.

It was already at 75% HP due to Kazuhiro's attack, and I was pretty sure we could take it, but the wolf proved us wrong. It jumped right over our heads and slashed its claws at Arata, but he was incredibly lucky, sidestepping the attack just in time. Then, Fumio, nervously shaking, initiated Vertical Arc, a sword skill, ripping through the wolf creating a "V" shape where he hit. I knew I had to help, and the wolf was highly damaged from Fumio's lucky hit on it. I initiated Sonic Leap, charging towards the wolf and striking it severely. It exploded into polygons.

"Woohoo!" Arata pumped his fist.

Just like Ayumi.

I tried to get Ayumi out of my head, because he hated me and I hadn't seen him ever since Kayaba Akihiko's speech on the first day of the game.

"T-That was p-pretty good." Fumio weakly smiled.

"We owe it to you, Fumio. That Vertical Arc skill was insane." I congratulated Fumio, and he didn't say anything back. We really needed to work with him about his shyness.

* * *

There was a lot of fighting, but we were, luckily, really stocked up on potions. However, it took forever to get past all the red wolves and other odd enemies. At least it seemed like it. Hours and hours passed, and the boss door wasn't in sight.

"I think we should just camp here, guys." Kazuhiro suggested as the Pirates walked on.

"Are you stupid? Pssh... we'll die." Arata argued.

"We could take turns keeping watch for enemies...?" Kazuhiro suggested again.

"We can't kill enemies alone while everyone else is sleeping..." I argued.

"Fine, fine, you guys. Let's just keep walking until our legs break." Kazuhiro grimaced.

"The boss door is nowhere! How are we ever going to get out of SAO... we can't find the fifth floor boss! It's been months!" I angrily groaned.

"I don't know, Haru, but we should keep looking. We must save everyone!" Kazuhiro heroically chanted.

"We'll never find the boss door..." I muttered, as my guild of misfits pressed on in the dungeon, hopelessly searching for something that we all thought we would never, ever find.

And then, we walked right into the boss door.


	5. Our First Boss Battle

**Welcome to Chapter 5! If you read Chapter 4 (which you should do if you haven't... obviously) then you know what's about to go down!**

**Thanks again for reviewing and keep it up!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

"Oh, never mind." I muttered, staring down a huge door that I knew would lead my awful guild into an insanely difficult monster.

"M-Maybe we should h-have hired more p-people..." Fumio was shaking.

"We got this, guys!" Arata patted Fumio on the back for the second time today. "And Fummy, keep using that Vertical Arc skill. It's insane."

"I agree with that." I added.

"I still think we need a strategy. Saving the players of this death game isn't possible without a plan." Kazuhiro reminded us.

"I don't know, Kazuhiro. I should have checked what this boss was, but we've made it all this way..." I pressed my hand against the door.

"Really? You're seriously going to go in there with those fools that you call a guild? Pathetic." A low, snarky voice scoffed from the darkness in the dungeon behind us.

"Who's there?!" Kazuhiro unsheathed his sword and turned around.

"You don't want to fight me, do you? I am far above your current level, so unless you want to die right here, I wouldn't go for it. But I'm always happy to be amused." The voice chuckled.

"Show yourself." I spat out.

"As you wish." The voice replied.

I heard footsteps on the hard stone ground. Then, a figure emerged.

A tall figure, one with long, black hair and a chestplate. It - I couldn't tell what gender it was - was calmly swinging around a huge, bulky sword.

"My name is Katsuro, and I've been following you around for a while. You could never handle this boss by yourselves, so I will happily accompany you in your battle." The figure, who I now knew was a guy, smiled. I was not a fan of this guy. He was too cocky for my taste.

"Why should we let you?!" Kazuhiro stuck his sword out at Katsuro.

"Hey, shh... this guy seems like he could help us." Arata chuckled.

"No! He's a stranger! We can't trust him!" Kazuhiro argued.

"Arata has a point for the first time in his life." I stated.

"Hey!" Arata crossed his arms.

"This guy looks pretty powerful. If he's not lying about his level, we could easily win this battle. It's not a bad idea; after all, we don't have to invite him to the guild or anything..." I explained.

"Fine." Kazuhiro huffed.

"I won't take any of the drops that the boss will give you after he dies. I'm doing this out of the goodness of my heart, not to get loot. I've got enough of that." Katsuro bragged.

"Shut up..." Kazuhiro mumbled.

"L-Let's go a-already..." Fumio impatiently said, and the Pirates (with the addition of Katsuro) nodded.

"Are you guys ready for this?" I asked. Katsuro seemed odd, but we would just abandon him after the battle anyway, so there wasn't any harm in it.

"Hah, of course I am." Katsuro grinned.

"Ugh... yeah." Kazuhiro said.

"Yahoo!" Arata goofily shouted.

"I g-guess." Fumio shook.

"Then let's do this." I confidently declared, opening up the boss door.

* * *

Nothing.

It was a pitch black room.

"Is this a glitch?" Arata asked himself quietly.

"Just wait; it'll probably jump out and surprise us." Katsuro informed Arata.

There was a few seconds of silence.

"So how's that airplane f-"

Suddenly, lights flashed in our eyes, and a roar boomed into our ears.

"Here we are." Katsuro took out his shield and sword to prepare for the boss.

And then, as suddenly as the lights had flashed into our eyes, in front of us stood a towering, green monster.

It had teeth that looked like daggers and claws that looked like swords, and it was about to attack us. Its red eyes gleamed down on us like we were little ants.

In a flash, Katsuro dashed up to the boss and smacked it with his sword. It lost a ton of HP, stepping back to recover. Katsuro smirked, initiating Salvage Fulcrum. He traced the number "4" in the air with this skill, and since the skill was 50% ice, it looked like it was about to freeze the boss.

"I'm not just going to watch this anymore!" Kazuhiro charged into the stunned boss, initiating Rage Spike. He leaped up at the level of the boss's chest and slashed furiously, inflicting more damage. He wouldn't have made the blow at all if it weren't for Katsuro's attacks.

We were too lucky.

Arata, Fumio, and I rushed towards the boss, but it was angry now. It clawed Katsuro in the face, slamming the powerful player right to the ground. It jumped up in a swoop, smashing Kazuhiro to the floor, reducing him to low HP. I grunted, looking into the boss's eyes.

They were emotionless.

I had no trouble piercing the monster with my blade. My rage alone inflicted high damage to the boss, but it raised its foot and kicked me across the room. I tumbled into a wall, checking my HP as I went.

I was in the red zone.

I got out a potion, but the boss began to charge for me. It was delivering a final blow.

"N-No!" Fumio screamed, throwing his weapon right into the monster's thy. It hurdled sideways, and I gulped down a potion. The shy boy rushed towards his blade, grabbing it just in time before the boss stood up.

"Thanks, Fummy." I managed a faint smile.

"D-Don't call m-me that." Fumio faintly smiled back, but the boss was behind him.

"Look out!" I yelled, running back to where my fellow Pirate stood. But it was too late; the boss's fist slammed into Fumio's back, sending him flying across the floor.

His HP lowered until I could barely see the red bar anymore.

"FUMIO!" Everyone screamed. Arata and Kazuhiro rushed over to aid him, as Katsuro and I stood side-by-side in front of the monster.

He still had half his HP left.

"HOWLING OCTAVE!" Katsuro shouted his attack, charging for the boss.

In a flash, Katsuro swiftly swung his sword around at the boss five times. He then cut downward and upward, and stopped for a moment for the final blow.

He poured all his strength into his next attack, slashing the monster upwards, jumping up as his pierced the boss's entire body. This sent the boss down on his back, as Katsuro gracefully backflipped back to me.

"Eh?" He nonchalantly smiled.

"That was... incredible." I staggered, but I remember Fumio's condition, turning around to where he had been before.

Him, Arata, and Kazuhiro stood in awe at Katsuro's attack.

Yet, the boss stood up again, now with 25% HP. Katsuro's attack was amazing, but not enough to win. The Pirates groaned, but Katsuro just shrugged.

"That wasn't enough to take him. Did you really think we could beat him with a simple sword skill? You guys really did need some help." Katsuro chuckled, but the boss was headed for us again.

This time, all five of us rushed for it, smashing our blades into its legs. This shot sparks flying out of the monster, as he staggered backwards.

We all yelled as we charged it for a final blow.

Our swords moved quicker than I'd ever seen in this game yet. I watched, while attacking, as the boss's HP dropped quicker and quicker until it was at around 2%.

"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" Fumio growled, rushing for it and smacking it with his blade.

The 2% HP was now 0%.

**Congratulations!**

The message we'd been waiting for had finally appeared. We all cheered in joy, and gave each other high fives, with the exception of Katsuro, as we'd known him for mere minutes.

"The Pirates can keep the loot, yes?" Arata hopefully asked Katsuro.

"Yeah, yeah." Katsuro gave us a thumbs-up.

"Woohoo!" Arata jumped for joy.

We actually did it. Us, the Pirates. We beat a boss.

* * *

**And now for a random question: who is your favorite character from the story so far? Tell me in the reviews! Hope you enjoyed; bye!**


	6. Arata's Crush

**Sorry for not updating yesterday, but here's the sixth chapter!**

**I'm introducing a major new character this time around... and bringing back an old one as well.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

"That was amazing, you guys." I congratulated my guild as we all sat at a table getting a celebratory meal.

"Did you see Fummy? He _wrecked _that boss!" Arata patted the shy Pirate on the back.

"S-Stop. Really, I d-don't l-like being c-called Fummy." Fumio nervously replied.

"But I thought of it, so therefore it's genius!" Arata smiled.

"That wasn't funny." Kazuhiro and I retorted, in unison.

The jokester pouted.

"What are you guys ordering?" Kazuhiro changed the subject after a period of awkward silence.

"Not sure yet... let's discuss that Katsuro guy." I changed the subject again.

"Should we i-invite h-him to the g-guild?" Fumio asked us.

"I don't know... he seems... suspicious." Kazuhiro replied.

"Aww, come on, dude! He helped us out a bunch!" Arata argued.

"We're not inviting him."

"Yes we are."

"No we are not."

"Yep!"

"Nope."

"Yes!"

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"SHUT UP!" I yelled, and got some looks from other players in the restaurant.

"Well, even if I agreed with you, Arata... he's gone. He left the boss room quickly and we haven't seen him all night." Kazuhiro pointed out.

"Ugh, fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii"

"Arata?" The Piratessimultaneously asked.

"Are you lagging?" I mumbled.

"Luh... luh... look at who just wah... wah... walked in..." Arata stuttered.

The guild turned around to see a girl walking into the restaurant. She had beautiful, long blonde hair and was wearing a dress; kind of odd that she hadn't died wearing no armor in the slightest.

"W-Wow, Arata..." Fumio shook his head. "W-We thought y-you glitched or s-something."

"Fummy, quiet down. The men at the table have to admire this chick." Arata scoffed.

Fumio was only twelve, so he didn't really care about this player in the slightest. He went back to twiddling his thumbs, waiting for a waitress to arrive so he could eat.

"I'm only fifteen..." I muttered.

"Good enough! You can admire–"

"Admire what?" A familiar voice chuckled above our heads. "_That _girl?"

I looked up to see a face I'd told myself to forget about.

Ayumi.

"What are you doing here, Ayumi?" I asked.

"Ayumi? Please. That isn't my name." He laughed. "I'm Orochi. Nice to meet you three, but this little pest wasn't very nice."

"Actually, kind sir, Haru is a very nice guild leader." Arata argued.

"So, you're a guild leader, Haru? And your name is Haru? Man, at least I put effort into my fake name..." Orochi snarled.

"F-Fake name?" Fumio questioned.

"Anyway..." I decided to ignore Ayumi's; er, Orochi's comment, "Yes, I founded a guild. Now, please, leave us alone. We would be very grateful."

"If you wanna brag about being a guild leader... I guess I can report that I am one, too. And that girl you were _admiring... _is my second in command. We are the Snake Demons, and we are growing quickly. We're going to fight on the front lines." Orochi explained.

"Snake Demons?" Kazuhiro scoffed. "You don't sound very heroic."

"Shut up, squirt. None of your business." Orochi retorted.

We were all "squirts" to Orochi. He was a super-tall man in his late twenties. Funny he'd go on an online forum to pose as a girl.

Kazuhiro huffed and turned to face the wall.

"Her name, if you are interested in her, is Emiko. She is going to be my wife. In-game, naturally. She is wearing those clothes for our special night out. Come over here, sweetie!" The Snake Demon leader called.

The beautiful girl (who was, honestly, too young to marry Orochi) walked right over to our table. Arata was staring at her rudely.

"Hey." She glumly said.

"This is my elegant wife!" Orochi smooched her on the cheek.

She rolled her eyes.

"Isn't she too young for you?" Arata asked.

"How dare you!"

Emiko mouthed "yes" and stepped further away from her "husband". I was beginning to think they were not getting married, with her negative attitude towards him.

"Alright, honey... let's sit down and leave these fools alone. Goodbye, little brats!" Orochi litterally dragged Emiko across the floor to get her to sit with him.

"They are not getting married." I declared.

"Agreed." The Pirates nodded.

* * *

After we had our victory food, my guild and I stepped out of the bakery. Right past the happy couple, of course.

Arata waved goodbye, and to my surprise, Emiko waved back, with a gloomy look on her face. Arata's face turned red the second her hand moved in the air.

As we walked out, Arata jumped for joy.

"She just waved at you because she obviously hates Orochi and she needed–"

"She loves me!" Arata skipped down the streets of the town, pumping his fists in the air and doing an odd dance that I will never un-see.

"What's with that Orochi guy? You two have history together, don't you, Haru?" Kazuhiro asked.

"Yeah... bad history. It's a bit too hard to explain." I stated.

"I see." Kazuhiro replied, nodding. "You don't have to explain it. I'd rather get back to the guild base."

"So I can draw that girl's face over and over and kiss the drawing?!" Arata excitedly asked.

"N-No." Fumio denied.

"Fummy, you don't understand love." Arata patted him on the back.

"A-And stop d-doing that t-too!" Fumio huffed.

"Fine, Fummy." Arata crossed his arms.

"Let's all hope, though, that we never run into that jerk again." Kazuhiro changed the subject.

"Agreed." I answered. I didn't need Ayumi in my life anymore, now that I knew her... his... true colors.

I didn't know what to think of Emiko. Why was she with Orochi...?

I didn't know, and I didn't really care. I jogged home with my guild.


End file.
